passport photos, a warning

[woodie]

got 2 sets of passport pics done in local post office.They advertise the service. 6 quid. they pull down a screen, quickie poloroid, cut into four and mounted. I did a first lot, looked at them went and straight to barbers next door (forest hill road)before buying a new batch, again divided and set in a little pro looking folder. I took them the next day to victoria and what do you know. the clerk siad, "these are no good".In fact he passed them around and a few clerks said , naah too small sir. Oh. So at their instruction i used the inhouse photo booth. ?3.oo. I was also given a passport house headed paper saying the pictures are unusable. Signed and official.

I go to the post office and show them the photos and note. Post master refused a refund. Got his post office passport template out and measured them. Little template said photos are fine.

Passport house scam? use our mafiosi machine please or no travelly? or boycott eh post office?

Just warning you. use a traditional photo booth.

[Jo]

I got mine done at the photo shop on Lordship Lane, opposite the Locksmith's. Aside from the fact i had the giggles and it took ten minutes, I got great photos, got to choose from three that he took, and they were printed off in seconds. Sent them off and got my passport back in a week, no problems.

[Domitianus]

Apparently you are now not allowed to SMILE in passport photos. This also applies to children. I have heard of someone's photo of a toddler being returned because the child was SMILING!!! How the f**k can you tell a child NOT to smile when it is having its piccie taken?

[catgirl]

My sister was refused a passport for her son as one of his ears wasn't showing in the photo! I said she should have told them he was actually missing an ear (he's not) to see what the response was.

But how ridiculous - not least because the photo was him aged about 5 months on a passport that he'll still be allowed to use when he's 5, by which time I think the missing ear won't make any difference as he'll be totally unrecognisable from the photo anyway.

[Ultraconsultancy]

A couple of years ago we had to assert my baby son's canadian citizenship, which involved the production of an officially acceptable candian government head shot. Not only is the size and aspect of the face statutorily defined, so is the size of the picture and the size of the white border; i think if you have an hour or two to waste you can download the regulations from the government of canada. So shut up with the complaining at the back, just be glad your not canadian and one year old, eh?

Ultra-canadian-consultancy

[SeanMacGabhann]

I find the whole passport/100ml fluids/belt and shoes shenanigans endlessly futile and frustrating.

Even if it helped prevent a terrorist attempt (which it doesn't IMO - a terrorist will pick up on the rules and try and circumvent whatever they are - that's part of what makes them terrorists) it could at least be applied consistently. But depending on where you fly to/from/which airport/time of day it's all a sham

Sometimes, I have been through the full monty whilst on the exact same trip within weeks I haven't even had my passport checked

It's either THAT scary and important or it isn't....

[spadetownboy]

bit of a pain in the ass i had probs with my eldest girls photo last year, ended up sending 3 sets of photos in with the third set on the point of being rejected until i phoned them up and pointed out that she was a child and to apply a bit of common sense, after a bit of humming and haaing they accepted the 3rd set, funny thing was they were the worst set out of the 3, poor child is now set for 5 years of funny looks at border controls the world over.

[Domitianus]

I think anyone with a baby photo to take for a passport should adorn the child in a false beard (preferably one of those Abraham Lincoln ones with no moustache) and send it in. If anyone complains simply tell them not to be so cruel and it is not your fault if your beautiful child is a tad hirsute.

[Jah Lush]

My passport photo doesn't look like me at all. In fact I look like Carlos the Jackel minus the moustache. Hideous.